Investigating the "Irish" family

Abstract

“The family” has occupied a core position in policy and public debates about the common good and national identity formation in
Ireland since the foundation of the State. The family, for instance, was afforded privileged mention and protection in the Irish
Constitution of 1937. Under Article 41.1 the State promises to “protect the Family” and recognises it as having “inalienable and
imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law”. Women were accorded a very specific familial role in the State’s
legal framework and the Constitution still states that “woman by her life within the home gives to the State a support without which
the common good cannot be achieved”.